The International Steam Pages


Penang Hills and Trails
Teluk Kumbar - Bukit China Hike 

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 4 walk with some less straightforward sections. There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed. 

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.


This account is linked from my Penang Peaks page which lists peaks over 400 metres as well as other places of interest and viewpoints. To find other hikes which visit this peak please check the maps of this are using this link.


Please note that if you repeat this hike you should not park within the Yang Cheng Chinese School grounds and to avoid upsetting 'security' you should do it when the school is not in session - i.e. at weekends and during school and public holidays.


There are 3 significant peaks over 300 metres high south of the Sungai Ara Valley - in order of descending height Bukit Gambir, Bukit Papan and what I have dubbed Bukit China as today's hike started at the Yang Cheng Chinese School and went up to a small Chinese temple before looping back to the school. We had certainly never been to the peak although we had hiked round the side of it quite often on the north, south and east sides. I can't recall reading a report of anyone else reaching it.

We had discovered this small gate at the side of the school (new site) by coming down to it on a previous survey. We now climbed up the path and quickly left the 'modern' village/town behind.

What could go wrong? Well for a start we must have missed a nondescript junction on the right and we arrived at a small hut with another path behind it.

I should have recognised it because I had come close to here previously, but I was somewhat preoccupied with this other path that came up on the left beside it. Not being quite sure of where we were we started up it.

We passed a couple of junctions and when we came to this double tree, we had to admit that we had gone wrong. So back down we went, but not very far...

... because in an inspired suggestion Yuehong told me to climb over the black plastic divider and look at the other side. Not 50 metres away was another concrete path, clearly the one we had come up (and down) before. 

We recognised the view of the orchard and headed up the zig-zags.

The way things worked, we had a 'retro view' of Teluk Kumbar with not a high rise in sight.

The path expired at a couple of blue water barrels and above was our target.

We paused for some water of our own and headed for 'the jungle'.

Compared to other top sections in this area, it was quite clear and not particularly steep. We had barely 50 metres to climb and soon we were at the summit area. 

There were a couple of discarded drinking water bottles but, as we had expected, no sign of a regularly used path. The plan was to turn left and follow the ridge down to a col and then turn right to descend to a valley above the small Chinese settlement on the other side from our ascent. We hadn't known what to expect but there was some abandoned young rubber at the summit and then a succession of old rubber terraces. We used the remains of tapper's trails to drop down steadily, making sure we kept close to the ridge, not difficult as it was much steeper on either side.

We came to the start of the flatter area and found it part blocked. It didn't matter because just at the moment, one of the local cocks decided to crow. We looked down and could see some light green plastic, it turned out to be an empty chemical container.

So we went down finding more and more 'plastic', maybe even more than gets left by the average Rainforest Hash Challenge. The gingers indicated a transition area ahead. 

There followed the bananas as usual and then we were in an orchard that we recognised.

It's in a small valley which gets 'damp' in the middle so we skirted it and joined a familiar path which took us past a small hut festooned with evidence of former Burmese occupants.

We came to the settlement which seems to have lost its last permanent inhabitant  In fact most people come here to visit the small temple, outside of which were the remains of innumerable fire crackers set off during the recent Chinese New Year celebrations. It had been very humid and now as we arrived there was a light shower of rain. We took an extended break and headed off down the concrete path.

If we had continued down it we would have come to Bayan Lepas which definitely was not what we wanted. Instead we took the small path to the right continuing up the concrete when the road came up from the left.

It becomes a path here and we took the zig-zag up to the ridge where we turned left to follow it south a short way. The left fork eventually leads to the path that goes down to near the Lexis Suites but we took the right fork. Now we had only come up this way once (and never down) and it had not been a totally satisfactory experience.

As such, we were game for a bit more exploring and gratefully accepted the offer of a path that went down to the bottom of the rubber.

Below us there was an orchard, maybe not one of the island's best, but someone had been up here keeping it clear and, ahead of us, we could see the remains of a path.

It was 'weeds' as opposed to vines and all we had to do was stop from time to time to ensure that we had not wandered off it.

Some parts were less clear and others plain obvious.

After a short while we came to some kind of T-junction. To the right was a water collection point with a number of water pipes which vanished straight down into a rocky area. To the left were a couple of small Chinese shrines and signs of a path beyond them. It rang absolutely no bells in terms of recollecting a previous visit.

This one had been concrete long ago but it was well graded and very easy to follow.

We didn't recognise it immediately but when we came to a junction we knew it was what we had come up previously although we hadn't reached the 'features'. We could have continued down to the (now closed) Heavenly Land Hardware Trading but that would have meant a fair walk along the main road to the car.

Instead, we wanted to investigate the path we had strayed on to earlier and we turned right and climbed up to the open area which we had managed to miss. Ahead would lead down to today's starting point but instead we went round the side of the hill...

... until we came to the hut with the path next to it. We then took the path down.

As it zig-zagged to and fro it was unclear where it would emerge but it turned out to be at a house above the Yang Cheng Chinese School.

The path goes up to the left of this house which comes with a full complement of yapping dogs. Part of the deal which saw the school, shops and flats built must have been continued access for the occupants as they have a well graded wide road up from the school's car park. Since we arrived, school had finished for the day and we walked out unchallenged. 

Yuehong was very happy, it was a well balanced walk in country which was not at all familiar except for the section on the 'other side of the hill'. There have been few new discoveries this year but all have been between Balik Pulau and the south-west corner of the island and she was particularly pleased that there was no 'rubber roller' search element today. In fact, so much so that after we found the Peter Boy shuttered I was offered a second Tiger over dinner in Sungai Pinang which she proceeded to share..


Bukit Papan Area

Key:

 ____ = Concrete Road

 ____ = Path

 ____ = Easy 'Off piste'

 ____ = Seriously 'Off piste'

(Not all paths are shown, there are many more.)

Click here for information on the maps.


Rob and Yuehong Dickinson

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk